India, China Troop Disengagement At Depsang, Demchok Complete. Patrolling Yet To Resume

While the Indian and Chinese troops have disengaged at the Depsang plains and Demchok area, talks to resume patrolling as it was prior to April 2020 are underway at level of local commanders.

India-China LAC: The Indian Army and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) disengaged their troops at the Depsang plains and Demchok area in the Eastern Ladakh sector of the Line of Actual Control (LAC), the de-facto border between India and China, on Wednesday. The disengagement was carried out in line with a patrolling arrangement finalised by both sides in the small hours of October 21, just days before a bilateral meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The disengagement process began on October 21 and came to its conclusion on October 29. However, the process of verification is underway on both sides. Under this, both the troops are checking whether they have gone back to the positions as per the agreement at the LAC, sources in the Indian Army said.

The two sides are yet to commence patrolling, and talks on the subject are going on between the local commanders, the sources said.

The ⁠patrolling modalities, the sources added, are to be decided between ground commanders at the level of Brigadiers or below.

Both sides will also exchange sweets on Thursday after the completion of the verification process.

With the completion of the disengagement process, both sides will now be focusing on de-escalation and, finally, de-induction of troops, for normalcy to return at the border.

“China and India recently reached resolutions on relevant issues concerning the border. At the moment, the Chinese and Indian frontier troops are implementing the resolutions in an orderly way,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lin Jian on Wednesday at a media briefing in Beijing.

During the recent formal talks between PM Modi and President Xi, which took place after a gap of five years, India said “mutual trust, mutual respect and mutual sensitivity” should be the pillar of the bilateral relationship between both countries.

Both leaders also vowed regular meetings at the level of foreign ministers, defence ministers as well as special representatives on the boundary question.

‘Not Easy Processes’

Ashok Kantha, former Secretary (East), Ministry of External Affairs, and former Ambassador of India to China, told ABP Live in an interview that “de-escalation and de-induction are not easy processes". "They are not easy because there is lack of trust and we have serious disadvantage when it comes to de-induction of troops because of the nature of terrain and border infrastructure where the Chinese have an advantage over us,” he said.

“So the de-induction time for bringing the troops back is much higher… The negotiators will be considering these factors,” said Kantha, who led the 1996 talks on a set of confidence-building measures (CBMs) by the military along the LAC.

Kantha added, “We do now have an understanding on disengagement on Depsang plains and Demchok. We earlier had an understanding, they were not satisfactory on disengagement in other pockets but apparently they are not being reopened. There’ll be a process of implementation of these understandings and also de-escalation.”

“Only then we can say that a level of normalcy has been restored along the borders,” the veteran diplomat said.

The Army had earlier told ABP Live that India will be achieving status quo ante at Demchok and Depsang plains.

Meanwhile, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is currently visiting Tawang, Arunachal Pradesh, where he will be taking stock of the situation at the LAC and also spend Diwali with the forces deployed in the border state.